James Comey hearing: Sacked FBI boss testifies before US Senate; here’s what he said

James Comey hearing: Sacked FBI boss testifies before US Senate; here’s what he said

James Comey hearing: Former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) James Comey testified before the US Senate Intelligence Committee that is hearing the 'Russian Federation Efforts to Interfere in the 2016 U.S. Elections' case.

Comey said that he was disturbed by Trumps’s attempt to get him to drop the investigation into the former national security advisor Michael Flynn. (Reuters)

James Comey hearing: Former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) James Comey, who was unceremoniously fired by US President Donald Trump testified before the US Senate Intelligence Committee that is hearing the ‘Russian Federation Efforts to Interfere in the 2016 U.S. Elections’ case on Capitol Hill in Washington. Comey said that he was disturbed by Trumps’s attempt to get him to drop the investigation into the former national security advisor Michael Flynn. Although Comey did not say if the President wanted to obstruct justice, Reuters reported. The former FBI Director told the senators that the Donald Trump administration had defamed him and the FBI with lies after he was fired on May 9.

Earlier, in his written testimony that had been released on Wednesday Comey had claimed that in February Donald Trump had asked him to shut the investigation on Flynn as a part of the probe into the alleged Russian interference in the Presidential election. Addressing the senators, Comey said, “I don’t think it’s for me to say whether the conversation I had with the president was an effort to obstruct. I took it as a very disturbing thing, very concerning…Although the law required no reason at all to fire the FBI director, the administration then chose to defame me and more importantly the FBI by saying that the organisation was in disarray, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader”…Those were lies, plain and simple,” he said.

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A White House source told Reuters that the President disputed two of the major points in Comey’s testimony; a) That he had asked VComey to drop the investigation of Flynn b) That he had asked for the former FBI director’s absolute loyalty. Trumps’ son, Donald Trump Jr meanwhile, in a series of tweets, attacked the former FBI director. The President, surprisingly, however, has stayed away from commenting on social media about the matter.

In a reaction from US President Donald Trump’s side, White House spokeswoman says President Donald Trump is “not a liar.”